*Data Hoarding System Start*

[System integration with host initiated]

[System compatible: running search]

[Information Found]

*Absorbing*

[14,237 texts imported]

“What was that? Why do I feel so drained?” Robert managed to mumble out from his place on the floor. “I swear I heard something inside my head while I was waking up.” Realizing he was still laying on the floor Robert pushed himself up into a sitting position. He heard the water running and forced himself to the sink to turn off the tap.

He looked around wondering what had caused him to pass out like that. As his eyes wandered through the house, he was sent into a frenzy as he realized that it looked very desolate in the home and the familiar scent of his books had disappeared from his nose.

Robert ran through the house checking each room, feeling more and more dreadful as each shelf was barren. He clambered over to the nook he was reading in and snatched his phone. The light from the screen lighting up his face didn’t hide the dread he felt when it seemed wiped clean as well. He was lost, his greatest fear had been realized and all of his collective information was gone. Every book in the home and his thousands of stored files were missing, seemingly wiped from existence as if they were never there.

“What am I going to do?” he said, his voice filled with despair. “How did this happen; I was only out for a few hours? Who could have come in and taken all of my books and deleted all of my files without anyone noticing?” Thoughts filled his head as he tried to wrap his mind around what was happening and how. He looked out the window as Greta rubbed his legs as if nothing had happened.

The storm seemed to have passed as there was a calm in the landscape outside, completely dissimilar to the raging storm from earlier. His neighborhood was dark, it seemed odd as there weren’t any lights on at any of the homes he could see. He wondered if anyone had seen what happened to his books, or who had come into his home.

While he was wondering what he could do in this crisis a voice chimed in his head once again.

[“Welcome Host, System has initialized and integrated your data into the system. Please do not be alarmed.”]

            When he heard the voice and realized it was coming from inside his head, he did the exact opposite of what it said and became very alarmed. He fell backwards, tossing his phone from his hand, and nearly squishing poor Greta.

            “What the fuck was that! Where are you, what are you?!” His eyes darted around the room as he tried to search for anything to identify what was going on. However, being the bookworm that he was, he already had an inkling of what was going on. The voice didn’t come again immediately, so it gave him time to calm down and think over things.

He had read of things like this in some of the books he read during a LITRPG phase a few years ago. This seemed to be one of those situations where he acquired a system. This one seemed to have stolen all of his books and data from his phone. Having that information calmed him down significantly as he understood his precious books weren’t gone forever.

            “Hello System, can you hear me?” he called out slowly, speaking into the empty air.

[“System apologizes for the scare and would like to assure you that your data is safe”] Well, that’s comforting he thought as he was still trying to take in the fact that he now had a system within his mind.

[System requests Host to initialize introduction program]

[Begin introduction *YES* *NO*]

It seemed to want him to select an option, but he had no idea how to select anything. He tried just thinking yes and the world faded to black again. Everything around him soon lit up as he saw bookcases flying in from all directions. He recognized them as the familiar bindings he walked past in his home every day.

            A glowing orb appeared in front of him, dimly fading in and out as it seemed to be looking at him. He tried to reach out and touch it but was surprised when the orb spoke to him. “Hey, don’t you know it’s rude to just touch someone you don’t even know, keep your hands to yourself!” Pffft, he laughed as the orb pulled back and seemed to flash angrily.

            “What is there to laugh about? I guess we should get on with the program. Since I am connected to your mind, I can tell that you have a basic understanding of what is going on here. That will make things much easier as we proceed into the next portion of the introduction.”